Categories

Meta

Wendell Rand-K’ai

Iron Fist is rapidly approaching, and a new trailer has been released, one giving us a pretty good look at all the action waiting for us…and to a couple of new characters. Let’s start with the good guys, so let’s meet Wendell Rand, portrayed by David Furr, the father of the titular hero. As you can guess by the trailer, when the show begins Wendell has been dead for years, so it’s likely we’ll only see him in flashbacks: father of Danieland CEO of Rand Enterprises, he dies in an accident (?) on the Himalayas along with his wife, leaving his child an orphan. We still don’t know how much of his past will be explored in the series, but in the comics, he surely isn’t the typical businessman, having some of a mystic side: let’s see together.

Wendell Rand’s early life is still shrouded in mystery: it’s unknown who his parents were, and how he came to be found in Nepal, but that’s where he was first found by Orson Randall, the man who became his mentor. The two met in a remote tavern, where the boy, orphaned and alone, was begging for somethig to eat. When he saw some vicious-looking men approaching an unaware Randall, Wendell warned him of the danger and even intercepted the attackers, saving the man’s life. Impressed by the boy’s courage, Orson decided to take him in as a ward, and unofficially adopted him. It turned out that Ordon Randall was the Iron Fistof his time, a mystical warrior tasked with protecting the hidden city of K’un-Lun, and he taught the boy the martial arts of the lost city. Wendell obviously admired his mentor, and expressed the desire to travel to K’un-Lun to become the next Iron Fist…something that Randall angrily forbid him, saying that the dragon Shou-Lao, whom he would have faced during the trial, would have certainly killed him. When, during a mission with the Confederates of the Curious, Wendell Rand was left behind after being shot, he understandably felt betrayed and abandoned once again: in spite to his former father figure, he decided to resume his project and to become the new Iron Fist, and started his journey to Tibet. He arrived to the mountain on which the hidden city allegedly appeared, and he was quite shocked in seeing two men chased by a dragon. Without thinking, Wendell attacked the dragon with his rifle, and managed to force it to retreat…saving the lives of Tuan, the lord of K’un-Lun, and his son Nu-An. Grateful, after knowing what the young man was seeking, Tuan accepted to adopt him and to introduce him to the mysteries of K’un-Lun, entrusting him to the care of sensei Lei Kung the Thunderer, who had taught Orson Randall before him. In K’un-Lun Wendell fell in love with the beautiful Shakirah (whom he was forced to leave when a jealous Nu-An exiled her) and became best friends with his training companion, Lei Kung’s son Davos, who competed with him for the title of Iron Fist.

When time came for the two friends to face Shou-Lao and become the new Iron Fist, they fought each other in a ritual combat to see who among them was worthy of the honor. Wendell clearly won the fight, but Davos refused to give up, standing up to fight again even with his body badly damaged; realising Davos would have let himself be killed rather than surrendering, Tuan interrupted the fight, declaring Wendell’s victory…thus being accused by Davos to favor his adopted son. Davos told Wendell he would have better killed him, and the young man was so upset by his friend’s anger that he decided not to face the dragon as he was meant to…thus being labeled a coward. In pain and alone, Wendell abandoned K’un-Lun and escaped to the outside world. After meeting once again Orson Randall, and finding him a drug-addicted wretch, he decided to start a new life. He shortened the surname Tuan had given him from Rand-K’ai to Rand, and moved to New York City, where he invented a new identity for himself. He met Heather Duncan, a woman he fell in love with and whom he married soon after, and became friends with Harold Meachum, an ambitious man who joined him in founding a new company, which would have become Rand-Meachum Inc., soon one of the most succesful and wealthy research and investment enterprises in the country. Wendell’s life was apparently perfect: what had started as a small company had become a multi-millionaire conglomerate, and his wife had given birth to a beautiful boy, Daniel…but still Rand longed for his lost home, and wanted to come back to K’un-Lun. After ten years from his self-exile, Wendell knew the city had reappeared somwhere on the Himalayas (never the same place twice, though), so he organised an expedition to bring his wife and child to K’un-Lun with him. Harold Meachum insisted to come along, and Wendell decided that having his best friend accompany him wasn’t a bad idea after all. What happened next prove that he was wrong, at least on this point, and that his destiny wasn’t to become the greatest Iron Fist, but rather to father him…

Wendell Rand-K’ai (or simply Rand) is a very intelligent and resourceful man, who can excel in pretty much everything he does. Emotional and sometimes reckless, he values the people he loves over everything else, and he’s ready to give up on a life’s ambition for the sake of friends and family. Having being trained by some of the best warriors in the world, Wendell is a superb hand-to-hand combatant, mastering most of the secret K’un-Lun techniques, missing just the last magic to be on par with an Iron Fist. Determined to return to the one place he called home in his entire life, Wendell Rand is apparently a man who has everything, but who hides a hole in his soul only his adoptive homeland can fill.

[…] had trained under him. Confirming his suspicion in a training room, Lei-Kung took also the boy, Wendell, among his students, and trained him to face the trial of Shou-Lao. Lei-Kung trained Wendell along […]

[…] to obtain the power of the Iron Fist. While training his own son, Lei-Kung had another disciple, Wendell Rand-K’ai, a foreigner who had become the adoptive son of Yu-Ti the August Personage in Jade, […]

[…] two monks were ready to meet their end, but an unexpected savior came in the form of a young boy, Wendell, who shot the dragon with his rifle. More surprised than truly hurt, the dragon retreated to his […]